Of Course, Mrs. Ellington
Chapter 4
"What do we have?" Peter nodded without a smile.
"The lab isolated the Ricin to the coffee Neal ingested. Investigation of the coffee bar found nothing, no evidence of contamination. Which means the coffee had to be dosed either en route or here." Jones placed the file on the meeting room table.
"Boss, Neal was on administrative leave. No one knew he was coming into the office, not even you. The half-life of Ricin in the average heated beverage is no more than three to four hours. Which means.."
"Whoever poisoned Neal was already here when he arrived and had access to Ricin."
"This was a highly coordinated plan, to be sure," Jones looked at Peter. "To be able to access the toxin, transport and deliver it required not only high level security access and resources but opportunity."
"Last night we ran the security clearance on everyone on the floor liked you asked. Only two people present had that level of security, both on the organized crime team. Who issued those clearances was blocked. The request red flagged and we couldn't get in beyond that."
Diana moved in her chair and looked at Peter with a question in her face she already knew the answer to.
"There might be a way, but it's risky...really risky. I have friends in NSA that could back door in. I could call in a favor, do you..?"
"Do it."
"Peter, you know what this means."
They looked at each other for the best of twenty seconds. There was no going back now. Peter stood and walked over to the bank of windows behind the desk.
"We're supposed to be the good guys, Di."
As she moved toward the door she turned and spoke softly, her voice filled with care. "Have you heard any more about Neal?"
"June says they're waiting for Dr. Kaplan. He's still unconscious."
"I'm sorry. If anyone can come back from this, it's Caffrey." She lingered in the corridor, then closed the door behind her.
wcwcwcwc
"How's Neal?"
"He's been sleeping peacefully the last few hours. The additional pain medication helped him, thank you. Isn't your shift over?"
"Yeah we finished morning report twenty minutes ago. Dr. Kaplan is going over Neal's results for rounds and should be in shortly. Thought you might enjoy some company." Susan handed June a fresh cup of coffee. There was sweet purpose in joining forces with June to watch over her friend.
Dr. Kaplan entered with at least half a dozen young women and men in white coats. Apparently, Neal was somewhat of a celebrity. Their first case of Ricin poisoning to survive and to undergo the CDC protocol.
"His serum electrolytes are returning to normal limits, renal functioning is improving, liver enzymes are still high. What should we be looking for at this point?" he asked to no one in particular.
"Hepatic necrosis is always a concern in these cases. Toxalbumins should give us an indicator if that's something to be concerned with at this point," said one eager young woman. Also mental status, is a benchmark of improvement after the 24 hour point. Persistent signs of confusion and disorientation indicate a poorer prognosis, on average."
"Good points, doctor. Let's get a tox screen, and let's see if we can wake Mr. Caffrey. Neal, I'm Dr. Kaplan. Squeeze my fingers, if you can hear me."
Someone was scraping at the edges of his consciousness. Consciousness was slippery. New construction inside old construction. A second of nothing, then desperately holding on. Either it was riding up or sliding down. Like a fairground roller coaster out of control. He wanted to stop it. For relief. He wasn't sure if he was succeeding. He lost control of time when the pain came back. It was like a knife wound, taking his breath away. He half expected his body to stop breathing again just thinking of it.
He surfaced briefly during the night and she was there holding his hand. Mom. Beautiful, the way he always remembered her. She said she would make it stop and she did. Could someone make time stand still?
He felt loved. Mom had loved him. He didn't want to leave that feeling behind, but he wasn't okay. She wanted him to squeeze her fingers. She was right there, but so far away. He tried to reach for her anyway.
After several minutes of unsuccessful attempts to rouse his unresponsive patient, Dr. Kaplan turned to the two women watching on, filled with a desperate hope.
"Have them page me the moment he wakes up."
Wcwcwcwcw
Diana came back thirty minutes later with a manilla envelope.
"You have it?"
"Boss...Peter," she nodded and swallowed hard. Her hand shook slightly as she held the file.
"It's okay Diana," he took the envelope from her. Inside was one name only, the assistant deputy director of the Office for Professional Responsibility. Nothing happened for a minute, then everything changed.
"What do we do now?" she asked him. Before he could reply Hughes entered the quiet conference room.
"Peter, a word," he motioned Diana toward the door. She wanted to stay, he needed a friend.
"I just received word that inspector Matthews from OPR is on his way over. Apparently you initiated an unauthorized investigation into the security clearance of another agency."
"OPR, that's rich. It never sat right with me, Kate, Fowler, Operation Mentor."
"What are you talking about?"
"This," he slid the manilla envelope across the desk.
"OPR approved the security clearance giving Organized Crime access to Quantico labs. The time line we constructed shows that Neal was poisoned by someone in this office. No one else had access or motive."
"What are you saying?" Hughes huffed.
"They are in this together. The corruption, money laundering went all the way to the top. We know the Flynn's had someone in organized crime on the inside. But someone higher up the food chain provided cover. When Neal contacted Ellen all the dominoes began falling.. leading straight to their involvement."
"So what, you think they've been monitoring him this whole time."
"They have oversight of Organized Crime, the Marshals and us."
"Go on."
"The money laundering scheme figured to bring in millions. What better protection for the operatives in organized crime than to have OPR in their pocket. The agency that polices the agency. It fits, keep your friends close and your enemies even... With James Bennett out of the picture, the only one with any connection to the case is Neal. They're cleaning up."
"If this is true that OPR is involved, and that's a big if. I'm not going to be able to protect you, if you go ahead with this investigation."
"You should be worrying about protecting who did this. Because I swear to God, if Neal dies there's no where they can hide." Excess adrenaline was burning through him.
"Be careful, Peter," Hughes eyes narrowed.
"I've been careful. Careful to play by the rules, I demanded Neal play by the rules, because that's the right way, that's who we are. They came into our house, Reese. God! They poisoned him right here." He was trembling.
Reese moved toward Peter and put his hand on his shoulder and squeezed briefly.
"Peter listen to me."
"No, you listen. I'm going to find who did this. With your help or without it. With the Bureau or without it. If you want my job, take it. I owe it to him."
"Where are you going?"
"To my meeting."
Moments later in a hastily arranged meeting a team from OPR headed up by inspector Matthews joined the organized crime unit, Hughes, Jones, Berrigan and Peter. Matthews was a man in his late fifties maybe 60, retirement age for someone who'd made it a career. His hair was short and neatly brushed, well dressed, tan and rugged not the prototypical agent. He nodded, looked over the group for a long moment and then directly at Peter.
"I'm agent Matthews. How's your man Caffrey?"
"I know who you are and why you're here. Cut to the chase." Peter said flatly.
The room went quiet.
"Okay, then. You ran an unauthorized security clearance from this office. A clear violation of Bureau policy."
Peter nodded.
"We need an explanation and it better be a damn good one. You got five minutes."
"I can give you one. Someone in this room is responsible for poisoning my partner."
The room went quieter still.
To be continued